As background, persons with diabetes suffer from either Type I or Type II diabetes in which the glucose level in the blood is not properly regulated by the body. As a consequence, many persons with diabetes often carry specialized electronic monitors, called blood glucose (bG) monitors, to periodically measure their glucose level and take appropriate action, such as administering insulin. In addition to the bG monitor, users may also carry a portable electronic device, such as a cellular phone, smart phone, music player, personal digital assistant (PDA), or similar device. In order to reduce the number of electronic devices carried by the person with diabetes, there is a desire for integrating the bG monitor into another portable electronic device. For example, a bG monitor may be integrated into a cellular phone so that a user only has to carry around this single, multi-function device.
In order to facilitate the development of electronic devices having a bG monitor, there is a need for a standardized bG module which may be embedded in various types of portable electronic devices, to which each would then function as a host for the bG module. Such a standardized, embeddable bG module may improve the development cycle by reducing the amount of time necessary for regulatory approval of the host.
Accordingly, a need exists for embeddable modules for measuring blood glucose levels which may be embedded in a host.